The present invention relates to a system including medical institutions such as a hospital and a medical laboratory and a supplier to supply a medical instrument to these medical institutions.
More particularly, the present invention relates to a method of supplying a medical instrument to medical institutions such as hospitals and medical laboratories and a system to check a stock status of the medical instrument.
Further, the present invention relates to a service providing method and service providing system to support selection of medical instrument for medical institutions such as hospitals and medical laboratories.
Further, the present invention relates to an electronic medical recording system and a medical foolproof system utilized in medical institutions such as hospitals and medical laboratories.
Further, the present invention relates to a medical instrument control method and control system for controlling a medical instrument used in the medical institutions such as hospitals and medical laboratories.
In medical institutions such as hospitals and medical laboratories, various medical instruments are used in surgery and medical inspections. The medical instruments are e.g. tools, medicine, and implanted devices including implanted tools (devices surgically placed in the body such as an intraocular lens, a pacemaker and artificial organs). Further, the medical institutions use these various instruments supplied from suppliers such as makers. Some of the instruments are stocked in the medical institutions, and otherwise, orders for some instruments are placed with the suppliers when required.
However, in the medical institutions, it is very troublesome to control stocks of the medical instruments because timing of use cannot be predicted without difficulty, and various types of instruments are used. Generally, patients fall ill unexpectedly and demands cannot be predicted without difficulty, and calculated control cannot be performed. On the other hand, in the scene of medical service, emergent surgery and inspections may be frequently performed. Accordingly, it is a very serious object to construct a system to quickly supply medical instruments. This is a specific problem to the field of medical treatment.
Especially, a part of implanted tools and medicine are degraded with time, and they are not appropriate for long-term storage. As the medical institutions cannot hold such instruments for a long period, they repeat ordering in accordance with necessity. That is, a high frequency of ordering must be made. Further, the makers must predict demands and control manufacturing and quick supply of products so as to cover every possible situations.
As an example of implanted tool which is degraded with time, an intraocular lens (including an intraocular contact lens) used in ophthalmologic surgery is known. A hospital selects a lens appropriate to a patient""s eye and uses it in the surgery. However, intraocular lenses have various sizes and shapes corresponding to individuality of patients, and a lens necessary for surgery is not always stocked in the hospital. Further, if the patient""s eye has an extraordinary size and/or shape, an appropriate intraocular lens may be out of stock even in the lens maker. However, in emergency ophthalmologic surgery, the supply of lens must not be delayed.
Further, the medical institutions have another problem. That is, the selection of implanted tool appropriate to a patient greatly depends on a responsible doctor""s expert knowledge and experience, i.e., so-called know-how. In the case of intraocular lens, a doctor of the hospital performs ophthalmologic measurement and diagnosis on the patient, and selects an intraocular lens having optimum size and shape for the patient based on the results of measurement. Several mathematically-expressed selection criteria for calculation of lens power are known. However, in some cases, the coefficient used in the calculation may be changed in accordance with the type of intraocular lens (difference in makers etc.). The coefficient, corresponding to the above know-how of each doctor, may cause a difference in type of finally-selected intraocular lens in accordance with a numerical value determined by the doctor. That is, how to improve the selection criteria to a higher level and attain homogeneity is a significant problem.
Further, in the medical institutions, by virtue of the development of recent information technology, electronization of patients"" medical records is expected. In conventional patients"" medical records, personal data, medical measured values and the like are written, however, in electronic medical records, more input items can be realized and detailed information on medical products used for respective patients can be recorded. As to surgically used tools such as implanted tools, to prevent omission of input or input error to the electronic medical record, it is desirable to input product information to the record on the spot of surgery. Accordingly, one of the problems is how to realize the on-the-spot input for prevention of omission of input or input error.
In the case of intraocular lens as an example of implanted tool, as described above, one intraocular lens appropriate to a patient""s eye is selected from various types of intraocular lenses. There may be no problem if a doctor who selects a lens and a doctor who surgically place the selected lens in the patient""s eye are the same person; otherwise, the record of lens made by the doctor who selected the lens is the only information of intraocular lens to be surgically placed in the patient""s eye. Accordingly, to perform the safest surgery, a foolproof system is desired to finally check an intraocular lens to be used in surgery before the surgery, and how to realize the system is a further problem.
The present invention has been made in consideration of the above problems specific to the medical field, and has its object to solve the problems related to supply of medical instruments, i.e., demands cannot be predicted without difficulty, and further, the instruments must be quickly supplied, by constructing novel method and system.
A more particular object of the present invention is to provide method and system for online ordering for a medical instrument by utilizing a communication network in a timely and economical manner.
Another object of the present invention is to provide method and system for online ordering for a medical instrument appropriate to a patient in a simple manner by utilizing a communication network.
Further, another object of the present invention is to provide method and system for efficient delivery and manufacturing control for a maker of medical instrument by utilizing a communication network.
Further, another object of the present invention is to provide method and system for providing an excellent after-sales service regarding a medical instrument by utilizing a communication network.
Further, another object of the present invention is to provide method and system for reduction of shortage of medical instruments by utilizing a communication network.
Further, another object of the present invention is to provide method and system of service for supporting medical institutions to select a medical instrument appropriate for a patient by utilizing a communication network.
Further, another object of the present invention is to provide method and system for providing a service to support selection of medical instrument, with a selection criterion which is advanced in accordance with increment in number of use of service.
Further, another object of the present invention is to provide method and system to foster timely development and improvement of medical products and after-sales support service by utilizing a communication network.
Further, another object of the present invention is to solve the above problems related to use of medical instruments in medical institutions by constructing a novel system.
More particularly, one of the objects of the present invention is to provide an electronic medical recording system for medical services to cover every possible situations for each patient.
Further, another object of the present invention is to provide a foolproof system upon use of medical instrument to a patient and a terminal apparatus to realize the system.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference characters designate the same name or similar parts throughout the figures thereof.